Inga Sempé

Inga Sempe is a French designer, born in Paris in 1968. She graduated from Les Ateliers ENSCI in 1993, after which she worked alongside Marc Newson and collaborated for a couple of years with Andrée Putman. Sempe began working independently in 2000, from 2000-2001 she was also artist in residence at the Villa Medicis in Rome.

The work of Inga Sempe is timeless and simple without leaning too far into minimalism, she has a great eye for colour and optimises them expertly, as well as shapes, in her designs. Her work features imaginative elements to catch the eye of her audience and convince them to look closer and fully experience the designs. The vast detail in her work has resulted in her being granted multiple awards, such as the Red Dot Design Award in 2007, Grand Design Award of the city of Paris in 2002 and Elle DECO International Design Award in 2011.

"When I was younger, I used to make ordinary objects such as match boxes, packs of cards, etc. I’ve always been interested in items and who designed them. When I was a child, I used to wonder who was behind each new item I came across. I also used to wonder how they managed to recreate these objects identically, all over the world." - Inga Sempe